Tyra Sanchez Is Banned From DragCon, and Here’s Why

Tyra Sanchez won’t be at DragCon in Los Angeles this year. The RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 2 winner has been banned for threatening violence against other queens and then refusing to sincerely apologize for her behavior. Let’s break down the Tyra Sanchez DragCon drama for you.

Last September, Sanchez and Phi Phi O’Hara had a feud over a Snapchat video in which O’Hara claimed “Raven was robbed” for the Season 2 title. Things seems to have escalated more recently, and this Reddit thread summarizes the latest beef between Sanchez and O’Hara.

Recently O’Hara tweeted out a video of Sanchez threatening violence against O’Hara and Tatianna. In the video, Sanchez says, “But when you see Ms. Phi Phi and Ms. Mother Fucking Tati’s ass stretched out on the motherfucking ground, you will know it was me. Yeah, I may not have physically did it, but it will be my doing. Remember that shit, bitch.”

Photo of Phi Phi O’Hara by Kashi Tamang

O’Hara tweeted at DragCon, saying that someone threatening violence shouldn’t be allowed a booth at the semi-annual drag convention. “There should be no booth for anyone who threatens hate/violence!” O’Hara said.

DragCon organizers told Sanchez she had to sincerely apology for her behavior. In an email that Sanchez shared on social media, they wrote, “As it currently stands, we cannot allow you to come to DragCon (in any form). We need to see you make a sincere public apology. This apology has to make it clear that you do not condone violence against another person (including other queens) and that you will in no way encourage others to act violently (or otherwise inappropriately).”

Sanchez doesn’t seem to be doing what DragCon organizers want her to do. Her posting of the Tyra Sanchez DragCon emails is of itself rebelling against the convention organizers’ request for an apology. But Sanchez’s response to them doubles-down. She writes, “Multiple times I stated that violence is not the answer and that queens of my upbringing sometimes express ourselves differently than most. I understand you may not understand this as you have only appropriated our lives, our attitudes and our mannerisms.”

Sanchez continues, “You can continue to push your narrative that I’m some angry black queen, but you and I know that is simply untrue. If you want to remove me from DragCon because of some drag queen drama then by all means remove me.”

The idea of the “angry black queen” narrative is one that has seen much discussion following the latest episodes of Rupaul’s Drag Race and Untucked. In the episode, The Vixen accused fellow contestant Aquaria of ‘playing the victim’ and attempting to make her look like a stereotype.

We have reached out to both DragCon and Sanchez for further comment on this story and will update this post if they get back to us. What do you think of the Tyra Sanchez DragCon drama? Sound off in the comments below and on Facebook.